Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European SavantsFlammarion, Camille
Philosophy
Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
Flammarion, Camille
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Spiritualism
As to levitations without contact, we discovered a method of
proceeding that renders their success easier. The chain, formed a few
millimetres above the top disk, is arranged so as to go in the
direction in which the movement is to take place; the hands the
nearest to the leg called on to rise are outside of and beyond the
top; they draw near and pass gradually by, while the hands that are
opposite, and which had at first advanced toward the same leg, move
away from it while they attract it. It is during this progression of
the chain, while all our wills are fixed upon a particular spot on the
wood, and when the orders to levitate are forcibly given, that the
foot quits the ground and the table-top follows the hands,--to the
point of upsetting, if one did not keep hold of it.
This levitation without contact was produced about thirty times. We
produced it by each of the three legs in succession, in order to
remove every pretext for criticism. Moreover, we watched the hands
with scrupulous care. If the reader will please observe that this
surveillance was exercised during thirty operations without detecting
the slightest contact, I think it will be concluded that the reality
is henceforth placed beyond all doubt.
_Seance of November 21_
The chief characteristic of this seance was the absence of that one of
our number who exercised the greatest authority at the table.[52] In
working without her we were put in a position to establish two things:
first, that one cannot with impunity do without an extraordinary
gifted experimenter; and, second, that one can, nevertheless, do
without him or her, if it is absolutely necessary, and that success,
although less brilliant in this case, is not impossible. I call
special attention to this last point, as well as to the frequent
modifications of our personnel, for the benefit of suspicious persons
who, not knowing the mental worth of the persons in question, might be
disposed to place to the account of their dexterity the results to
which they essentially contribute. The psycho-physical working power
of a "sensitive" table-turner is of a mixed nature: a resolute posture
and a circular movement are not sufficient to give birth to it.
Besides this, and above all, there is needed _the will_.
Our will having at last asserted itself, and muscular pressure having
yielded its place to the pressure of commands, the fluidic rotation
arrives, after five or six minutes of concentration of our thoughts.
We felt, indeed, keenly that some important person was lacking and
that we did not possess our usual power. However, we were determined
to succeed, even at the price of greater mental fatigue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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